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| RRAS Pelagic birders in good form |
A last minute cancellation got me aboard a Redwood Region Audubon Society pelagic birding trip this weekend with Kristin. It had been a while since we had gone on a birding trip together, and years since I'd been on the ocean. I was both thrilled and apprehensive.
During our dockside orientation, trip leaders Rob Fowler and David Fix instructed us that it was our duty to
scream if we saw a bird (their emphasis, not mine), and throughout the trip they commented on bird identification tips, behavior and biology. The rest of the group was equally cooperative and friendly, pointing out birds and making sure as many people as possible saw them (unlike some terrestrial birding groups I've been with).
I anticipated the possibility of wet, cold and seasickness, but birding on a bobbing boat was something new. It was much like shooting a moving target with bare sights while standing on a teeter totter on a roller coaster. It was a constant struggle of up, down, sideways, pitch, roll, yaw, heave, ho and where the heck did that darned bird go? Eleven o'clock! It's coming across the bow! No wait, it's at back at 10:30! Then gone. Then back again. After a few hours, my onboard birding skills improved.
Seasickness was almost a problem. I feel the queasiness start up once, when I tried to get out of the wind and warm up a bit, but then got a whiff of diesel. Getting into fresher air and hearing the cry of, "ALBATROSS!" cured whatever sourness was coming on. The beautiful bird whirling around the boat was the perfect cure for seasickness.
Bird of the Day: a tough choice between black-footed albatross, south polar skua and northern fulmar. Albatross wins by a beak.
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Here's Rob Fowler's eBird report:
Location: Pelagic trip from Trinidad
Observation date: 9/11/10
Notes: RRAS pelagic trip aboard "The Shenandoah." Leaders: David Fix and Rob Fowler. We left the dock at 0730 and arrived to the eastern edge of Trinidad Canyon in thick fog around 1100, about 25 miles out. We laid a slick out which attracted birds pretty quickly, where we got a skua slam with all 4 species seen very well by all on board along with Sabine's Gulls and all the expected shearwater species. During this time the fog burned off with the sun peeking through nicely. We then headed further west to the 30 mile mark but decided to head south after that since the seas progressively got worse the farther west we went. We then headed back to the east edge of trinidad Canyon where we laid another slick and attracted a few more birds. Best bird here was the Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel that only Fowler got brief, unsatisfying views of. From there we headed back to Trinidad, arriving around 3:45 pm. <br>Other animals: Harbor Porpoise-10, Northern Fur Seal-1, Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish)-1, California Sea Lion-5.
Number of species: 20
loon sp. 2
Black-footed Albatross 8
Northern Fulmar 25
Pink-footed Shearwater 80
Buller's Shearwater 26
Sooty Shearwater 50
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel 1 One seen only by Fowler at the east edge of Trinidad Canyon flying through the 2nd slick we put out in the area.
Brandt's Cormorant 5
Wandering Tattler 1
peep sp. 30
Red-necked Phalarope 45
Red Phalarope 21
Sabine's Gull 10
Western Gull 55
California Gull 35
South Polar Skua 2
Pomarine Jaeger 8
Parasitic Jaeger 6
Long-tailed Jaeger 10
jaeger sp. 5 too far to id.
Common Murre 44
Cassin's Auklet 25
Rhinoceros Auklet 22
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
